Griffon Models is a new Chinese company producing aftermarket items for modelers. I must admit that, when they first came out, I thought they were pirated products as their lineup seemed very inspired by other company’s work, namely Aber, Eduard, and Lionroar. Fortunately, this is not the case.

In a small elongated heavy plastic bag with a folded cardboard header, are the contents of this set, the Flak 38 barrel along with instructions. This set may be displayed on a pegboard in the local hobby shop.

Upon examining the parts, we find a beautifully machined flash hider, an aluminum barrel, a small fret of brass with two photo-etched parts, and a short length of 0.5mm ABS rod.

The instructions are quite clear and remind me of Aber’s with the black line drawings and blue detail sketches. With only four manufactured parts and a fifth the modeler makes themselves, it is not much work to get the barrel assembled.

The fit of the flash hider to the barrel was a touch loose. Since soldering aluminum has not been successful for me, I used Gator’s Glue applied sparingly to the pin at the end of the barrel. The tip of the barrel was not drilled out.

The PE parts are on thin brass which was easy to cut and file clean. In both cases, I did not need to anneal the metal to impart a slight cylindrical curvature to match the receiver front end which is machined onto the barrel. Again, Gator’s Glue was used to apply the parts. The ABS rod is used to create what appears to be a button by slicing off a small disk.

All in all, only ten minutes of work and the barrel was ready to replace the kit’s plastic rendition.

Accuracy is very good on this barrel with the proper length matching the latest plans from Hilary L. Doyle in the Panzer Tracts series of books. The flash hider correctly mimics the short openings found on the prototype but close examination does not reveal that the reason for this is the spring strip used to secure the flash hider to the barrel. The tip could use a little thinning as well but it does look good as is.

The photo comparison next to the Dragon gun shows were the plastic gun needs to be cut in order to use the barrel. I matched the mounting pin to a drill bit and attached the barrel to the gun. Indeed, there is a marked improvement. I do not see any reason why this barrel could not be adapted to any of the other guns already marketed.

This is a simple and well made product which is easy to use, accurate, and (thanks to distribution by Dragon Models USA) easy to find at the local shops or online. Griffon Model is distributed in the US by Dragon Models USA & can be ordered from http://DragonUSAonine.com.